Great Lakes Indian

Fish & Wildlife Commission

(GLIFWC)

Wild Plant Gathering in National Forests

Traditionally, the Ojibwe people relied on a host of wild plants for food, medicines and other practical purposes. Many of these plants remain important today. To provide more harvesting opportunities to tribal members, GLIFWC’s member tribes entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Forest Service that gives tribal members the ability to harvest plants in national forests within the ceded territories. With a permit tribal members can harvest plants such as princess pine, balsam boughs, birch bark, ginseng, wintergreen, to mention a few, and may even set-up a sugarbush.